Blog

Archive for April, 2015

We have many customers who need their labels to be waterproof and we offer a wide range of label products that are indeed waterproof.

However, we also receive queries from customers who need waterproof labels that can be washed – either in a washing machine or a dishwasher.

They often assume that our waterproof labels are also “washingproof” – but, unfortunately, this simply isn’t the case.

While our waterproof labels are perfectly suited to exposure to or even total submersion in water, the conditions they would be exposed to in a washing machine or a dishwasher are much, much, MUCH more aggressive and they simply won’t survive in these machines.

Washing machines and dishwashers involve the use of cleaning products, which often contain ingredients that are particularly aggressive – these elements end up attacking the adhesive, weakening the bond until the label simply falls off. The ingredients may also cause damage to the material of the label itself and the print that has been applied to each label.

So, what should you do if you need labels that will go through a washing machine or dishwasher?
You will need to look at more specialised products – in particular, labels that are designed specifically for clothing or for the food and drink industry. There may be some suitable products already available; alternatively, you may have to contact label manufacturers to arrange for a bespoke product to be made.

At Label Planet, we do have one product that might just help.
Along with our A4 label products, we also supply Stikins ® – a multipurpose name label product that is capable of surviving in both washing machines and dishwashers.

These labels simply need to be peeled off their backing sheet and stuck down like any other label; when applied to clothing, they should be stuck onto the wash-care label.

We supply these labels in packs of 30, 60, 90, and 120 labels and they can be supplied either blank or printed with text.

Please note that you cannot print these labels yourself; they require specialist printers and software.

If you order via our website, you can only request basic text (no logos or images) and the same thing will be printed onto each label within a pack. We are able to offer some customised printing – but you will need to contact us to discuss your requirements first.

While most of our customers just need to know the basics about their labels, some will need a bit more information about the materials used to make each product.

This is where our material specification sheets come in handy.

These sheets contain more detailed technical information about the printer compatibility, face material properties, adhesive properties, backing material properties, and general comments about the appearance, printability, and suitability of each label product.

Printer Compatibility
This indicates whether a product is suitable for inkjet printers only, laser printers only, or for both.

Product Description
A brief description of the product, including comments on the appearance of the labels, their printer compatibility and print quality, and any applications that the labels are particularly suited to.

Face Material Properties
The thickness (calliper) and weight (grammage) of the face material.

Adhesive
Information about the adhesive including its type, initial and ultimate tack, minimum application temperature, and recommended storage range once applied.

Backing
A description of the material used to make the backing sheet and its properties, including its thickness (calliper) and weight (grammage).

When taking orders over the phone or reading through our emails from customers, one of the most common phrases we come across is “so I’ll have my labels tomorrow then” – usually as a statement of assumed fact, rather than a question.

While we have chosen to make our standard delivery as efficient as possible, we would remind all customers that we CANNOT guarantee next day delivery for the majority of orders. While many of the orders that we despatch WILL arrive the next day, we cannot guarantee that this will happen, every time, 100%.

Orders of less than 250 sheets overall
These orders are despatched via Royal Mail’s first class service.
Royal Mail themselves state that they AIM to deliver first class mail on the next working day – they DO NOT guarantee it.
According to their most recent evaluation of the service levels they have achieved, 93.3% of first class mail is delivered on the next working day.
If you want to guarantee next working day delivery, you will need to upgrade to one of Royal Mail’s guaranteed delivery services – pre-1pm (available by phone or online), pre-9am (available by phone), or Saturday (available by phone).
We will only charge you the amount that Royal Mail charges for this service – we don’t add on our own charges for upgrading your shipping option.

Orders of 250-475 sheets overall
Where possible, these orders are despatched via our next working day carrier service (providing the order is received before 3pm/2pm on Fridays).
If your order is particularly urgent, please get in touch with us and we will be able to advise if there are any additional shipping options to speed up the delivery of your items (e.g. AM delivery).

Orders of 500+ sheets (standard paper labels with permanent adhesive)
These orders are despatched via next working day carrier service.
Where these items are temporarily out of stock, they will be made in a couple of days and then despatched via next working day carrier.
If your order is particularly urgent, please get in touch with us and we will be able to advise if there are any additional shipping options to speed up the delivery of your items (e.g. AM delivery).

Orders of 500+ sheets of made to order products (colours, special adhesives, synthetic materials)
These orders are despatched via next working day carrier service ONCE THEY HAVE BEEN MADE.
Our made to order items are subject to up to five working days for despatch; these items are made on a rotational basis, so the lead time is dependent on the gap between the time you place your order and the time your items next appear in the production schedule.
If your order is particularly urgent, please get in touch with us; we can advise of any shipping options that are available to speed up the delivery of your item AND double check on the estimated lead time for the particular items you wish to order.

When people ask us for advice about setting up a template, one of the first things we say is:

WHEN YOU’RE DONE MAKE SURE YOU DO A TEST PRINT!

A test print means that – instead of printing onto your sheets of labels straight away – you test your template by printing it onto a blank sheet of paper. You then place this test print beneath a sheet of your labels and hold them up to a light source.

This allows you to get a rough idea of how your template will align on the actual sheet of labels – and gives you a chance to make any necessary corrections BEFORE you load all of your labels and attempt to print them in one go.

While it’s tempting to try and save time by simply setting up your template, loading your labels, and pressing “Print”, the time (and money) you save by doing a test print is well worth it compared to the nightmare of returning to the printer and finding that all of your labels are badly printed or, worse, completely unusable.

You may think “it won’t happen to me” or “but I’ve set my template up perfectly” BUT there’s more than one place where things can go wrong, which means that even if your template is the most perfect template in the history of templates you still won’t necessarily get the perfect alignment when you press print.

Why? Simply because there is more than one element at play. Remember, to get the perfect print you need:

A well designed template

The correct print settings selected in your document AND in your printer’s properties

[We’d probably add in a dollop of good luck for good measure!]

Doing a test print means you have the chance to make sure that your template AND your printer are both set up to produce the perfect print – because both the software and hardware you use will have its own set of limitations and accuracy that will influence how your design sits on your sheet of labels.

Doing a quick test print can save you HOURS of time – and the cost of replacing any sheets that end up being wasted.

We’ve said it many times before; we place a great deal of importance on reviews and are delighted with the response we’ve received (and continue to receive) from our customers. Hundreds of you have left us feedback, which we use to continually review and improve our products and customer service level – we also use them to make sure that we’re simply doing a good job!

We’ve recently added a new Review Widget to our website – you may have seen it hovering on the right side of the screen as you use and view our website.

This widget gives you a quick and easy way to take a look at all of our reviews and our review statistics including:

The number of reviews we’ve received

The average rating we currently hold

Our overall rating

The five latest reviews we’ve received

You can also follow the “See All” link to take a look through all of the reviews we’ve received from our customers to find out exactly what they think about Label Planet. You can also find more specific Product Reviews about each of our Label Product Ranges; simply visit the Range Page of the label product you are interested in and scroll to the bottom of the page for product specific reviews.

Of course, you can also take the opportunity to leave us your very own review – and let us know how you think we’re doing!

Yes, we’ve returned from our extended Easter break – and hopefully you’ve had as lovely an Easter as we have.

We’re working away to get up to date and will hopefully get all of our orders processed, our sample requests answered, and our emails replied to today.

If you’ve placed an order or sent us an email over the extended Easter break (Friday 3rd April – Sunday 12th April) – please don’t worry that you haven’t had a response yet! You’re on our system and we’ll respond or reply as soon as we can.

If you do have any urgent concerns or queries, please get in touch and we’ll do our best to help.

Label Planet is a UK label supplier specialising in labels on A4 sheets. If you are an existing customer then many thanks for coming back; please let us know if we can assist in any way, particularly if you are looking for something different. If you are a new visitor then we hope you find what you need. We are always happy to help and we can supply free samples for you to try. Our website includes free templates for you to download. We supply labels directly to individuals, companies, and organisations of all kinds in quantities of 25 sheets to 40,000 sheets.

Where applicable, our products are the same size format as the Avery product references (e.g. L7163 or J8163) shown above. These product references are used because they are size formats that are found in most software packages. We list the product references along with our own Label Planet Ltd code for your easy cross referencing with the software. Avery and Avery product references are the trade marks of the Avery Dennison Group. Label Planet Ltd products are not made or endorsed by the Avery Dennison Group.